Welcome to botches off -road join us as we talk
about everything from gear reviews to rock landing
car camping to tent camping and all things to
do with the outdoors Well, he didn't get it right
there for it. I said it all wrong I just made
it right, but you know what we'll roll with it.
So yeah, welcome to the pod Alex has taken too
long to bring up the script. So I made the script
Mark what the fuck you that? Blood orange cranberry
hard cider. That sounds fucking terrible. It's
intriguing by Blake's Intriguing is the wrong
word for drink choices. Yeah I've got a nice
non -alcoholic Snapple Apple because currently
Snapple Apple gets you I want to say ten cents
off if you buy two of them. It's five dollars
And you get $0 .10 off a gallon. I have been
doing the craziest thing. You guys know me that
I'm a big Blue Monster fanatic. I have cut my
monster consumption by about 90%. I went through
withdrawals because we couldn't afford it the
one week. So I wasn't like drinking any monster
at all for a while and I went through the withdrawals
the caffeine withdrawals I was drinking coffee
because I had coffee I was drinking green tea
from our cupboard because I found some green
tea because I was fiending and Got to a point
to where my caffeine levels were pretty low and
now I'm pretty much drinking only It's like a
blueberry diet green tea And it's super good
And I get just enough caffeine from that. Like,
I'm doing pretty good on it. And then I occasionally
will relapse on a Blue Monster, but it's not
my everyday thing. So I've been saving a shit
ton of money doing that, because I was going
through about $20 a week or more on a 12 -pack
of it. So I have saved, in the last three months
doing this crazy Wesco buying drinks thing, $136
in fuel. That's good. It is. Yep Yeah, I just
probably about that much in drinks Yeah, but
I use them like I'm gonna buy the drinks anyway,
right? Well, I've saved a lot too because that
$20 a week That was getting it's getting expensive
and that's it was getting to the point to where
I was like now we have to get the monsters We
have to get it this week. It was like, okay,
we could be using this for food. So yes Now,
now that I'm doing the green tea in a few months,
like I'll do like three monsters a week for like
seven days. I'll have one. Yeah. And I'm good.
Like so I'm at a much healthier point. Like you
shouldn't be consuming two to three monsters
a day anyway. So. Oh, I also made a discovery
this week. So Wal -Mart has free delivery to
our area now. Oh. You know, I I have cheated
on Myers officially and and have been only shopping
at Walmart and And the thing is that Walmart
also works with after pay so I can buy my groceries
with after pay and have them dropped off at my
house and That's pretty fucking great. I'm not
gonna lie So we have feral cats around us, so
if I had my groceries dropped off, there wouldn't
be any left when I got there. Well, you're there.
It's not like you just let it sit on the porch.
You play in the day that you're going to be there,
and don't leave. You schedule your time, and
then you sit there and wait at the door, and
then they bring your groceries, and you put them
away. So I've been doing the pickup. I've been
doing all the shopping online. picking pretty
much the cheapest versions of it from Walmart,
because it's kind of a pain searching through
the Walmart aisles. A lot easier to look up what
I want. Yep. Look at the cheapest version of
that item, add it to my cart, and then I just
do a pickup. And we've saved a lot of money doing
that. Yeah, but now. And I'm going to do that
for camping, because then I can. change like
I can have my menu for the week or whatever we're
out at camping. I can put that in my cart and
then I can order it, pick it up, throw it all
in the fridge and then go. Now, imagine you take
that same concept, but you save the damn near
twenty dollars it costs for us to go to a Walmart.
By having it delivered. Yeah, but I kind of need
to get out of the house. Oh, I never need to
get out of the house I could yeah, I could spend
my whole day right here on this property and
be happy as a peach I mean, you kind of have
to when your vehicle's gone all day I have I
have a mule it goes 20 miles an hour and I have
driven it to town three times this week Grant
or Fremont not Fremont Yeah Yeah, it's like those
guys that lost their licenses and now drive their
old John Deere tractors to town. God damn. Yeah.
We all know him. I had a guy in Lansing that's
literally how he got around. He would go and
drive his cans, his beer cans, in the back of
his John Deere tractor trailer. And he would
drive to the store, pop his cans. there is a
guy in sierra vista arizona that wrote his lawnmower
everywhere now mind you it's sierra vista arizona
there ain't no grass to mow so where this dude
came up with a lawnmower you know if you're good
with it yes oh yeah i'd be too lazy to take it
off too hey around here. You could just drive
around town and be like, hey, you want your lawnmowed?
Yeah. Yeah. Do it for five bucks. Like, yeah,
the uh the meal's not bad. I mean, for going
into grant, it's not bad but man, if I had to
go **** anywhere else, there ain't no way. Yeah,
no. Yeah. It's just, I mean, it probably overheat
going to Nuego. How about say, I think Nuego
is kind of pushing it. That take like 40 minutes.
That's it. That's a 10 -minute drive that take
like 40 minutes. Yep To where in a way go? Yeah
Yeah, I thought you I thought you were talking
about Fremont for a second. I was like, there's
no Yeah a 30 -minute drive for me go on like
65 that's almost a 30 -minute drive for me Well,
it's kind of the same distance cuz you go through
new I go right? Yeah, and I go through Bridgeton
like either way. It's the same distance for either
one of us Probably overheating going up the hill
from the other side of the river. Oh, yeah. I'd
be worried about the brakes. That you can't drive
it on M37. So I'd have to find some backwards
route. True. Yeah, that's true. Well, yeah, we're
not doing that. So we're getting a. We're getting
snow this week, guys. Supposedly. What? I didn't
see that. Are you kidding me? Yeah, I've been
hearing it's supposed to happen Sunday. Yeah,
like four to five inches. All that stuff we've
been talking about, Mark, that needs done in
my yard. We got to do that like Friday and Saturday
now. Yeah, I think it's supposed to rain Friday
and Saturday, too. Yeah, it's supposed to rain
Friday, it looks like. Yeah, I mean, so we're
going to be cleaning up. We're going to be cleaning
up the yard in the rain. It's going to suck.
Yeah, I mean in Michigan. I don't ever put any
real Like merit into anything they say because
everything changes so Like we could get four
or five inches sure, but we'll lose it either
same day or next day. It's it's not gonna freeze
All right. Well, this isn't the weather podcast.
We just talked about some off -roady stuff It
is that does pertain to off -road because I was
I want to drive in snow. Damn it. Well, okay,
so I know you guys have seen it. I don't know
if the listeners have yet. I'll probably put
a I'll put a link to my Google Drive in the show
notes for the file that I have for the DNR trail
closures. Michigan DNR closures. Is there even
DNR anywhere else? Everywhere else, it's like
BLM. Oh, okay. Anyways, I was just clarifying
it's Michigan, not anywhere else. Well, now you
got me curious what other states have DNRs I
think I don't know. I think there is some DNR
somewhere else No You get out West Yeah, you
get out West and it becomes okay land management.
Yep And then California's got Department of Fish
and Game. Yeah. I guess I never thought about
that. Yeah, so now I can't find an actual list
of who calls it the DNR. Okay, so it looks like
there are a few. Okay, so Georgia, Minnesota,
Maryland, Indiana, Michigan, Iowa. That's it.
What is Canadian call theirs? I Don't know. They
got they're just like us. They have a bunch of
states. So every every Providence probably has
their own but anyways a sketch of tunes So the
Michigan DNR is closing a bunch of trails. I
look through the list. There's nothing That I'm
really worried about it's like little bits and
ends for the most part like like very small like
a miles worth like each at most as a mile yeah
except for one trail up by Grand Lake and they
give notes right on all the reasons they're closing
them there's one trail up by Grand Lake it's
about a mile and a half long and their note for
why they're closing it is it's rocky and a conventional
vehicle would get damaged driving up it good
to me that doesn't sound like a reason to shut
down a trail It seems like a reason to keep it
open exactly. Yeah. Yeah, so That sucks. I and
we have till the end of the month I don't know
the exact date but near the end of the month
like the first Yeah for public comment. So I'm
trying to get someone to go out and check that
trail out and see like Is it worth closing because
it's the only one that seems like it's worth
talking about, you know Yeah, every everything
else is like a quarter mile of The end of the
trail has been burned for 30 years. That's what
most of them Yeah, a bunch of trails have not
been touched or been closed off because of being
sold for land. Yep, so Yeah, I I'm hoping I guess
next week I think someone's gonna go look at
it What's the one a drum and I saw there was
one on drum and being closed? Yeah We pull up
Google Earth Speaking of Drummond didn't they
just make a new like association or something
like that? Or a new I I have okay, so I think
that what that is Joe Yamber Derek don't fucking
come at me if I say get this wrong. I think that
Joe Yamber and Derek headed a New association
to try and combat what they're doing up there
Yeah, I don't know. I just know that something
popped up. Oh, yeah, they are closing a small
section of trail right here on Drummond Island.
Yep. Kind of have a look at it the other day.
It's shown as a separate line from the road,
but it's part of the road. So it's just a mismap.
Oh, they're just correcting it. Gotcha. Yeah.
So if you check it out, if you're around any
of them, give us a comment. If you don't want
them closed, obviously make some comment on their
on their what on their open? Is it like an open
forum or what? Yeah, there's like a place you
can go to put in your yeah If you got your email
submitted, they most of them got the link at
sent out email wise. That's true. Yes, right
So check that out. I am kind of curious. I know
we said this isn't like a weather podcast. But
it got me thinking, what do you guys do to prepare
for snow when you wheel that's differently from
summer wheeling? I mean, do you guys do anything
differently? Do you run your tire PSI lower?
Do you take extra equipment? Do you do anything
differently for snow wheeling? Pretty much exactly
the same Generally if I'm snow wheeling, I'm
not camping so I don't have the camping gear
in the truck I'll generally have like, you know
tools instead of camping gear We don't pull the
trailer obviously no So that's that's really
about it. Okay, cuz I cuz I definitely like I
get like Snow shovel or some kind of like hard
shovel to take I throw like an extra change of
warm clothes, MREs, stuff like that. Just like
if we break down or if we need to dig our way
out of a situation. I have muck boots and stuff
I always keep in the truck. Oh, I do that anyway.
But I never, ever have a shovel in my truck.
Probably a terrible idea, but I never have a
shovel. Yeah. And do you guys lower your PSI
in the winter? I think I would say this weight
distraction pad. I run the exact same PSI, whether
it's snowy, muddy. I go down to between 12 and
15 and call it a day. Oh, yeah when you're wheeling
but on the road yeah Just like normal between
30 and 35 I was just curious because I know technically
with cold air your PSI what drops a little bit
anyway Well not if you actually air it up it
doesn't so if you air up in the cold Your PSI
stays the same right if you air up in the warm,
and then it gets cold your PSI changes Yeah But
if we're airing up and airing down consistently
we don't have that problem Yeah, I was just curious
well And now that I have a nice more flayed air
compressor I will be airing up and down a lot
more. Yeah Yeah, I was just curious if you guys
did anything different cuz like I I throw like
our Our shovels in our cars like we have aluminum
shovels. They're just kind of cheap extendable
ones for like Guess not like the heavy shit,
but like powder powder to heavier medium heavy
I don't know how to explain it kind of sushi
snow I could throw a grain shovel in the truck.
I mean there you go. Those would be perfect They
actually are that's what we use for shoveling
our sidewalks and stuff Yeah, right, but I you
know we I used to carry in my Subaru I used to
weigh the bot the back of it down with like bags
of kitty litter and sand and stuff and then if
I ever got stuck, which I never did. But if I
ever did, I would cut one of those open and used
it for traction. I've usually got my 12 volt
heated blanket, which mine isn't 12 volt like
plug into the car. Mine run. I have it converted
to M 18 or M 12. That one's M 12. So it runs
off the same battery pack as what's in my hoodies.
Yeah. And then I usually have an extra code in
there. just in general, not particularly for
wheeling, just in general. There's generally
an extra coat. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, no, not
really. Yeah, because I've I've been stuck. My
Subi broke down in the winter once. I think I
think I ate through a belt or something and I
was on like 98th. It was like the middle of a
snowstorm and I didn't have a coat in my car
because I was just driving from work and I just
like I don't barely ever wear coats unless it's
really cold. So it's usually just a long sleeve
shirt or a sweatshirt. And I broke down and there
was nobody on that road for a while. So I just
kind of like sat there trying to figure out who
to call. I was like, OK, it's getting fucking
cold out. My feet were freezing. And I'm just
like, dude, I should have been better prepared.
So I'm just thinking, like, if we're on the trail
snow wheeling, like, let's say ever, is there
something that would change a little bit? But
you kind of keep you're saying, Alex, that you
kind of keep all that shit in the truck anyway,
like boots, coat, everything. Just not a shovel
because. Yeah. Well, and when you have a winch,
I guess a shovel is a little less needed. right?
Because then you could just winch yourself out.
But for me, until this year, I hadn't had a winch.
So shovel, max tracks, they were kind of my best
option. Yeah, the max tracks didn't do nothing
for me anyway. Yeah, they did until they didn't.
They did until I was spending so long that I
just got pools of water on the bottom of the
tracks. And then at that point, without studs
on them, They really did nothing. It was just
rubber on rubber, or rubber on plastic, mind
you. I give them a C for usefulness. I'm not
saying they're completely useless, but they're
a big item to carry when nine times out of 10,
there's a better option. Yeah. I think they're
much more useful, one, when you get the ones
with metal studs, obviously. Two - I disagree.
You know, yeah. Oh, yeah So I watched a video
recently a guy had the one with metal studs and
he tried to use it and he bet Every single one
of those metal studs and then shot it out the
back and it like stuck into something Nice. Yeah.
Yeah. I I mean I guess I've seen I Mean, I guess
I haven't really seen much for winner in metal
studs, but I'm just assuming that metal studs
would help with your traction a lot better, but
Honestly, the way I look at it is it's a space
to usefulness ratio, right? And the amount of
space that a MaxTrac takes up, like some people
say, oh, I just mount it to my roof rack. Yeah,
but something else might be a lot more useful
up there. So from a space to usefulness aspect,
I just they're not that great. Yeah, I think
a lot of people, it's just like I used them a
ton this summer. But it wasn't for recovery.
Yeah, it was like I put them in between two logs
as a bench or I we used them as leveling blocks
We did daisy chain them Because everybody had
them and to help get out of like a muddy situation
But honestly a winch would have done that too
like so like I think after you get a winch you
kind of It's they're kind of pointless Yeah,
and honestly like they're not that cheap either
No, I think mine were about and I had cheap ones
mine were about a hundred some bucks Yeah, and
at that point why not just save up a little bit
and get a winch because most vehicles I'm not
saying all most vehicles you can do a winch and
a Harbor Freight winch plate for like Don't do
a Harbor Freight winch because they're more expensive.
I'm going on the cheap side here You can get
a winch and a Harbor Freight winch plate for
under 300 bucks and that works for most vehicles
Yeah, and Facebook marketplace was a steal for
me. I mean, exactly. I was looking at like seven
to eight hundred dollars for a hideaway winch
plate, which was which was my cheapest option
at the time for the FJ. And I found one for a
hundred. So that's worked good. I finally tested
it out on another car ever here. Our last time,
our last course in calf. And it works great.
So none of my bolts snap. Nothing bad that you
found. Yeah, I mean I did look when I got home
so Gavin go I didn't see anything Gavin goes
to do some maintenance Gavin you missed that
your brake pads were low. Oh Well, I knew they
were low. I mean I told you guys that like Before
I went on that thousand mile trip. I'm like,
I know they're low I know, you know, I know that
they're getting there I just kept putting it
off and putting it off and Tried to I went to
go put them on the one weekend and right before
that weekend when I went to go put them on is
when they went out so we ever think those pads
Yeah, yeah Yeah, we're good. I don't remember
if we ever put the new pads on or not. Yeah.
Yeah, we're good I know we did so side but Yeah,
and now I have two new calipers and oh, that's
right. I remember that adventure. Yeah Well,
I have two extra calipers now too. Yeah, that's
sit in my my gearbox up top So if anything ever
happens or if anyone that has the same kind of
calipers as I do needs them boom So that's good.
It's always good to be prepared I was just wondering
on winter preparedness because I I'm always the
I wouldn't say preppy type But I always like
to make sure I have everything now that I have
a winch that really does fix a lot of the issues
Like last winter, I got stuck trying to do a
recovery for someone who wasn't even there. Remember
that? I do. Yeah, she wasn't even she wasn't
even there. And I went through a blue trail.
And my God, that was the roughest trail in the
snow I have ever taken. I was bottoming out on
almost every hole. The rule of thumb in Michigan
is if it's marked a green trail in the snow,
it's a blue trail. If it's marked the blue trail
in the snow, it's marked the black trail. Yeah.
Well, and I think a lot of our even blue trails,
like in the summer, even in the winter, we would
have been like, yeah, these aren't shit. But
like that one, it was like the ruts were so nasty.
It was like going through. It was like going
through ever like the some of the ruts that were
down there. I was jumping the truck. I can tell
you from experience Skitter Hill. is a black
trail in the winter and a blue trail in the summer.
Yeah, I think blue trail in the summer is. I
think it would be closer. I don't know. It really
depends on your setup. Yeah, I mean, most just
for me, most not a blue tree there. Yeah, I think
what's was it not Scott? What's his name? Scott
did it. He's yeah. Scott tried, right? He didn't
make it up. No, yeah, you're right. You had to
win shout same spot. I went out when I high sun.
Yeah, I bet you I wouldn't do that on 35 snow
Let's find out Planet I Gotta get my locker fixed
Do it once the snow falls Sunday It stays around
long enough, that's the other thing about our
winter is that We get snow and it's gone like
two to three days lately Only lately it has only
for the first month then we get hammered and
it stays around for like three weeks And then
it goes back. Yes No The last like five years
we get hammered it stays for about three weeks
And then it goes back to being snow gone two
days later Yeah, we always get that midwinter
melt in like January I always called a midwinter
melt but like it's like a day or two day or two
We don't like 50 something and we haven't been
getting turns into ice We haven't been getting
real winter until like February 1st the last
five years and then February 1st comes we get
a massive snowstorm. It's there for three weeks
and then it all melts away. I Miss snow, man.
I miss snow like I had in the UP Well up as in
like Beaver Island, but I miss 2014 Nine foot
of snow. I remember I remember that Grand Rapids
flooding people taking pictures of fish like
halfway up their windows I had a I was in my
last year of school. I Was it 2014 or 2012? 2014
was the year Yeah. 2014 was the year that Grand
Rapids was the snowiest place on earth. Yeah.
I think I remember the 2012, because that wasn't
my last year. I was like my sophomore or freshman.
And I was at a buddy's house. And we were just
loving it. Like we had the snow. He had metal
roof. So the snow was just going off the side
of his metal roof. And he was jumping from the
second floor balcony into the snow. naked and
that was just like you know as guys and shit
like just bros hanging out like we were drinking
Mountain Dew playing Cod and we're like let's
take a break and we run up to the balcony jump
off the ledge into the snow pile naked and run
back into the house or warm up by the fire it
was fun man the 2014 season was the first year
that I was driving And I had a rear wheel drive
Buick Roadmaster with all four ball tires. And
I'd take that thing out and I'd be driving down
the road and there'd be a three foot snow bank
just covering the road. And I just plow through
it. Fucking great busting. Yeah. I know it didn't
drive down a hill. I parked it at the top of
the hill and put it in park and it went down
the hill. There's a difference. But yes. Yeah,
I remember. I think that same day, well, the
day after we had all that fun in 2012, my dad
called and was like, he's like, all right, dude,
I'm coming to get you. I'm like, it's kind of
rough out. He's like, no, I need you home. We
have about four and a half feet of snow on our
roof, and we can hear the roof making noises.
Oh, god. I'm like, oh, shit. So he had like a
cheaper modular, single story modular. So he
came and got me. And I got there and there's
about a quarter of the roof. You could see a
hole. It wasn't a hole through the roof. It was
a hole in the snow that was on top of the roof
where my uncle had already gotten up there and
was shoveling snow off the roof. And I'm like,
Dad, I'm afraid of heights. And he's like, I
don't give a fuck. And so we all got on the roof
and started shoveling snow off the roof. And
it took us like five or six hours. And by the
time we were done, I know, shit you, by the time
we were done, the snow Covered past our windows
like it came up to the roof where the gutters
were on all sides we looked like we had a giant
fucking igloo and so then we had to get down
and shovel out a path to get to our to and out
of our door and Then we push shovel up against
the house for insulation and we were like dude.
What what is gonna happen? We thought this was
gonna it was gonna get worse like trees were
snapping in the middle of the night. You could
hear them under the weight, like just blowing
up because of the water or the moisture content
in them. You guys have heard that, right? That's
probably one of the eeriest and coolest sounds
is when you're out in the middle of the woods
and you just hear boom, just fucking explosion.
You know how I normally sit and browse marketplace
the whole time that we're doing this? My marketplace
just decided that I was in San Francisco, California,
and it will not set back to Grant. What the frick?
Are you using like a VPN or something? No, I
don't use VPNs. I'm fucking a danger rabbit.
But the thing is, there's some really cool rigs
for sale in San Francisco, California right now.
I'm sure. Are they the cost of San Francisco,
California? Dude, like not really. Here's a well,
here's a Cascadia vehicle tent for 200 bucks.
Oh That's sick. Here's a 93 Toyota Previa for
like 2000 that runs and drives Dude, Previus
are cool. I do that. I want a preview like that's
that's my dream car right now. I want one so
bad Yeah, and I've been trying to talk Caitlin
into it, but she just keeps telling me they're
ugly. I don't want a minivan and i'm like yeah
but it's a minivan that's all wheel drive and
supercharged and manual yeah yeah i think there
was a couple of them for sale in michigan and
i kept sharing them to cnn she's like absolutely
fucking not i'm like it could be your trail rig
i've seen someone do it dude i want one so bad
like that it could be my daily i don't even give
a damn you know how fucking cool that would be
yeah yeah i just want any i just want an old
Toyota, like Land Cruiser, like FJ80 or something.
Here's a running and driving Wagoneer for six
hundred dollars in Sacramento. Yeah, you should
start shipping those over and then bring like
get you in the trailer with your dad's truck.
Oh, wait. And then that's up to bringing them
back and then selling them. That's up to eighteen
thousand dollars in repairs right now. Like he's
worth it. He's literally well the thing is he
owes 16 so It he's kind of stuck, you know, yeah,
but yeah fuck dude. It's just he's now can't
even Total it or anything right cuz you'd get
like three grand now. He'd get he'd probably
get like 20 But he's not gonna just hit a deer
then but dude I'm gonna go right to the bill.
He's not gonna get most of that. So the thing
is like And he needs to have a diesel because
he asked me to pull the horse trailer. And I'm
like, Dad, you can buy a really nice OBS for
what you're putting into this Chevy right now.
But in his defense, when this truck is done,
he should never have to touch the engine again.
I mean, it's brand new. It's overbuilt. He'll
never have to touch it again. Transmission, same
thing. And then, well, no, because we ended up
not needing to rebuild the transmission, so we
might have trans problems in the future. But
it's an Allison. It's before Chevy made Allison
mad, and Allison quit making them transmissions.
So he should be OK there, but the body's already
rusty on the thing. So he's going to have to
put a body on it in the next probably five years.
I don't know how many of our listeners are from
Michigan. I know we've got some from here, some
from other states, but Chevy vehicles in Michigan,
you can find like 20, 23 Chevy pickups completely
rotted the fuck out. You go to a junkyard, every
other vehicle you see in a junkyard is a Chevy
pickup folded in half. And I'm not talking like
three quarter tons or one tons that actually
pull trailers. I'm talking half tons that might've
never had a trailer put on them. pickups. They
just Chevy pickups rot. That's all they do. Yeah.
They rust like a motherfucker. Subarus are another
bad one in Michigan. Like. Yes. Touch them. They
crumble. I mean Toyota's too. It's horrible.
Yeah. I honestly nothing in Michigan is really
safe but. Really? Okay. I I'm going to say this.
Say what you want. If you're buying a vehicle
in Michigan, you don't want it to be unusably
rotted. Buy a Ford. It's the only option and
I'm not talking just a Luma duties That's why
there's so many more 90s OBS Ford pickups on
the road than there are the old OBS Chevy's Because
all the Chevy's rotted out and all the Fords
they look like hell their bodies are fucking
toast But their frames are solid their drivelines
are solid. They're still moving down the road
that's such a shitty thing about living in the
north like this because the north is such a beautiful
place but the rust the rust is fucking crazy
yeah and there's things we can do to help with
it um if we switch to or start adding beet juice
to the salt it's no longer corrosive and it won't
rust our vehicles out which is funny because
we actually sell beet juice from here in Michigan
to other states to use for the same purpose.
We generate enough beets here to also do it here
on our own stuff, so why don't we? Yeah, I mean,
don't we sell beet juice to farmers to like weigh
their tires down? I mean, yeah, so... Farmers
have mostly switched it used to be that we use
chlorine for that but chlorine is also corrosive
and rots out our rims So a lot of farmers have
switched to beet juice because it does the same
job without being corrosive and it's non -toxic
right like it's not gonna do anything to because
I remember my grandpa I think he had a 4440 and
He used beet juice and hit on all of his tractors
our farming so our 3010 we just our the chlorine
filled wheels rotted out like two years ago so
we got some new wheels made for it because of
course it's a weird one you can't just buy the
damn wheels um but so we had some new wheels
done and then we filled it with beet juice instead
of chlorine this time around yeah but that being
said that chlorine lasted 50 years before it
rotted through the wheels yeah but yeah it's
Really? And that's the big thing. If we started
doing beet juice slurries instead of just salt,
we'd be in a much better situation. Yeah. And
our roads would be all sorts of cool colors and
Oh man. I had this whole, I had this whole conversation
when I was on that other podcast. Uh, was that
the tuba door show? Um, honestly, we live in
Michigan. We should just expect bad roads by
vehicles that can handle it or buy a snowmobile.
Why are we trying to bend nature's way? Why don't
we just adapt to it rather than trying to change
it? See, I'm not going to say what I was going
to say, but because there are people in inner
cities that want comfortable roads. Well, that's
fine. They can be like Grand Rapids and put heated
roads in. Boom, problem solved. Holland. I think
it's Holland. I don't think, no, Grand Rapids
has heated roads. Holland has heated sidewalks.
I thought, I thought Holland was like the first
one. They did side. He did roads and sidewalks.
No, Grand Rapids has had heated roads since the
early 1900s. Oh, I didn't know that. So. Yeah,
I mean, that's cool. I, I like that idea. I think
heated roads are. Did you hear that, Mark? No.
Oh, I just got. Confusion. Oh, I just got a like
god -awful scream in my ear. From my headphones.
My kid? Oh. Yeah, I don't. Uh you should check
your surroundings. There might be a creature.
That's **** dude. But no, um after my nightmare
last night, that's believable. But um. Yeah.
Yeah, no, I I completely threw me off track now
too. **** Should we talk about roads? Oh, yeah.
So, you know, all the brick roads in Grand Rapids,
all the original roads in Grand Rapids? Mm hmm.
They're all heated. Yeah. And they're beautiful.
That's how all roads should be. I think we should
just switch to brick, man. Such such an easier
thing to replace. And who gives a shit if it's
a little bumpy? It looks better, dude. I like
those cobble roads, man. I I also like brick
roads. I wouldn't want to go. I wouldn't want
to go expressway speeds on brick. But no, no.
I like that's a I mean, the only thing that I
think would be like a problem is you got your
county trucks going by and just like, yeah, go,
go, go. Yeah. Bricks flying. Well, as I said,
that's the other thing is snowblowers like Fremont
does. I think cool. I think the brick roads also
have like weight limits, so I don't think just
anyone can go on them. Yeah, I know. No, I like
watching Fremont. When I used to go there in
the early mornings to go to work, I would catch
the snow blowers on the top of these track around
the tractors. They would be pushing through the
fucking through the main drag of Fremont onto
like a truck. Yeah. And just catching it all
in the back of a truck like a grain. What do
you call those combines with the grain county
the county does a good job up there? They do
that anywhere where we have more than two lanes
so New wego they actually yeah, they do that
new I go to in the morning do they yep, right?
I've never I guess I've never seen it only on
m37. Yeah. Mm -hmm Everywhere else yeah flood
I Missed that one because I only see county roads
down m37 or county like the plow trucks down
at 37 when I got there, but not like the tractors
with snowblowers attached to them. Big Rapids
does that, too, and it was always fun to watch.
Yeah, it's just cool seeing a different way to
do it. We were talking about that a little earlier
in one of the group chats that I'm in. Some people
are like, well, I got to get my snowblower ready.
And I'm like, dude, I just fucking floor it.
But Alex knows my driveway my driveways got a
little hill right up at the end that goes up
to the road And so we have to like before we
had all four -wheel drive vehicles We had to
go up to the edge of the road We'd have to look
while we were sliding back down the hill to see
if there were cars coming and then once we were
like Oh, no cars coming we'd back up a good 16
feet and then hit that bitch full speed to get
out of there So I only know snow plows here I
only plow my driveway if I know someone's coming
over. Like if my grandma's coming over, I plow
the driveway. Otherwise, I have four wheel drive
for a fucking reason. Yeah. We shovel paths to
our cars and we shovel our deck off and the rest
of it. Like last year, it was perfect. Like everybody.
We all had all wheel drive cars or four wheel
drive cars. I will say that even like CNN is
all wheel drive. Honda still handles better on
snowy roads than my truck does on four -wheel
drive. Dude, that's, yeah, that makes sense.
Yeah. Yeah, I know it does. All -wheel drive
is better for snow. Now your truck, oh no, your
truck's mechanical, right? You don't have all
-time four -wheel drive that you can turn on.
Yeah, no, it's mechanical. Because like Duncan
or Shane's truck, which I guess is also mechanical.
So if you don't lock your center diff and you
just put it in four -wheel drive, then it's all
-wheel drive. Yeah, I I just noticed like and
I will say this winter too I had a lot of weight
taken out of it because I took everything out
of my truck So that also kind of didn't help
with the handling my springs were stiffer So
I think I'm gonna leave the fridge in I'm just
gonna take the battery out Keep that little bit
of extra weight in there. I'm gonna take the
water out of my my Dometic tank leave the tank
in there. No take the tank out and your hose
Yeah, cuz it will still crack yeah, it'll it'll
form moisture and then it'll crack take that
out put that inside Yeah, but that's pretty much
all I have that's I really in general your truck
is squatted in the back So you should definitely
pull some weight out of there in the winter It's
I think it's only squatted because of the weight,
but that's why my springs My springs if I take
them out my right is like substantially stiffer
and it handles worse You should definitely cut
down some weight back there in the winter Don't
just leave it super weighted down because that's
gonna eat through your fucking shocks We'll see
maybe I will I mean, I'm not there's not a whole
lot. No, I'm just trying to think of what I can
take out It would be mostly just tools because
a lot of my weight is tools in the in the top
So I'm like, I don't know if I want to take those
out Yeah, but you're the weight that your problem
is is it's lower and farther back. So it's whatever
you've got in your back hatch Because stuff on
the roof isn't gonna make you tip backwards as
much Yeah, well except for that back box. That's
right in the back but That's where I have a lot
of my weight. I have a lot of my impacts, drills,
stuff like that. But yeah, I think the fridge
itself is about 45 pounds. So the battery, it's
not five pounds, but take that out because I
don't want that to freeze. But no, I'll have
to take the fridge out too. Never mind. Because
I have to charge that battery during the winter.
So I'm just going to plug it into the wall. Will
this be your first winner on your wild peaks
or your second? Second. OK. Yeah, and they were
great comparatively. Comparatively to the last
ones I had, because I got them just after poker
run. Yeah, you're right. So. I went and picked
those up from Joe and put those on. And they
were mad at me because I still had mud and shit
still in my wheels. And I was like, dude, they're
like, take it to a car wash. I'm like, fine.
So I took it to a car wash for like 10 minutes.
And they were still mad because they still had
some in there. I'm like, what do you want me
to do? Lay on the fucking ground? I'm like, dude.
I'm fucking. I, this last time I went in there,
no, two times ago, I told them like, guys, it's
as clean as it's going to fucking get. Like,
yeah, like I'm sorry, but they're like, well,
we charge more for like having to clean all that
shit out. I'm like, well, so you charge more
than I'm sorry. I don't like, I don't know what
you want me to do. I'm not going to lay down
in the middle of the car wash in the middle of
winter and fucking scrape out all my frozen mud
out of my fucking wheel wells. And I remember
after After Poker Run, they got on Mark's case
because, okay, so we brought it in because it
had three leaking tires, right? Yeah. We needed
them to de -bead them, clean the bead and put
the bead back on. They complained because it
had three flat tires when they got out to it.
Well, what do you think our problem was? I need
them to redo my... Yeah. Yeah. I need him to
redo my rear tire and my driver left because
I still have a leak. I think the stem, um, the
valve stem in my spare is leak is what's leaking.
Sounds like a good time to put some apex valves
in. Yeah. How much was yours again? I think it's
like 200 bucks to have all four or all five done.
Yeah. Well, I'm not gonna lie the new thread
on ones they're old thread on ones I think we're
fucking pointless, but they have those new ones
I Look up apex and it's showing me like apex
learning. I thought it would be like apex legends
the video game Yeah, they're new thread on one
I'm really impressed with you actually remove
the core now Yeah, the new RCV, the updated RCV.
Way better than the old one. Because you remove
the core and then put it on. So it basically
just gives you a whatever ours is called, RPV,
but with a flexible stem. Yeah. Yeah. That would
be, that might be it. I like Apex. Apex sponsors,
please. fuck dude good luck they don't sponsor
fucking nobody um the other thing though i do
have some mild issues with the rcv like they
stick out farther than the rpv which i don't
necessarily think is a good thing but i don't
know it looks like it's a good good product you
know yeah well maybe maybe it's my destiny to
be the tester of these we'll see yeah so i mean
because you have the rpv right so yeah me and
mark both have rpvs yeah and then you just need
to get four you just swap the one off whoever
spares swapping with that's that's true but you'd
have your point you would have to keep the i
do a set of five it's 120 for a set of five okay
yeah yeah half the price and then you don't have
to pay for remounting and everything Let's see,
how much are the RPVs? $38 a piece. 160 for a
set of five. Plus you got to have, you know,
pay to have them taken apart and put back together.
Yeah. Yeah. So I'd be looking at a couple hundred.
I am wondering how long it is before we have
to rebuild them. Do they sell a rebuild kit?
Oh good, they do. It's six dollars for a rebuild
kit. Yay. This will be your second winner on
those, right? What, the Apex? Yeah. Yeah? Did
you still, did you have problems with them in
the first winner, Aaron Down, like with them
freezing and stuff, or were they okay? The only
problem I ever had... was when I first had them
installed we were at rocks and valleys and they
were consistently losing air um what ended up
being was that when they installed them they
bent or they twisted one of the o -rings so it
wasn't sealing and then they fixed it the next
day and i've had a problem since cool yeah that'd
be my luck for sure and one thing We gotta do
this yet, but we talk about it every time we
have to use them is we need to get the bower,
the little bower sprayer so we can spray them
off before we deflate just to make sure there's
no dirt or grime in there. Yeah. Yeah. That's
why I usually blast my hair before I even hook
up to it. Yeah. I do that same thing too with
my little compressor. So, um, What else? There's
nothing else we really have to do to prep our
trucks for winter, though. Make sure our coolant
and our, what is it, our rain washer fluid is
all up to snuff. I did have water in mine for
a little bit, but I already drained that out,
so. Dude, it definitely thinks I'm in San Francisco.
This is honestly making me mad at this point.
I think maybe I'm gonna throw some fuel treatment
in my gas tank a little bit for what usually
just I used to just do it just cuz I Don't know
every other tank I used to throw a little bit
of seafoam in there and It just acted like it
switched, but it's still showing me San Francisco,
California. This is honestly gonna make me upset.
It's a sign Yeah, that's the sign I need to go
out there yeah Dude they were talking about going
to Black Hills and one of the group chats and
that would be so cool. I I would love to go to
like South Dakota the Black Hills area. Yeah,
I it's about it on a very Overestimated value
would be like $1 ,500 in gas just to go out there
And that's overestimating, and that's accounting
for a little more driving. That's over accounting
for how much fuel consumption I have. But 1 ,500's
like a safe amount for gas there and back. And
it'd just be really cool to get out of state
somewhere. Like not south, but west. Like I've
never been west, like more west than Wisconsin.
really want to go west I really want to see that
stuff out there like the videos of everybody
like driving past like these gorgeous views and
it's the the fact that they're like they don't
even acknowledge it and I'm looking at I'm like
that's like the coolest shit I've ever seen I
mean like there's people that see like to come
on Mount Falls and say the same thing right I
know but it's like it's like I want to see that
shit and Just want to get out there dude. I'm
hoping that this winter with what our plan is
that we can get out Maybe sometime late this
winter either go south to Tennessee Kentucky
or Go west somewhere, but west with snow. I Don't
know. I'd rather go south where it's a little
colder and not as much snow at the time I Northwest
is okay. I've spent a lot of time in like the
northwest area Southwest is where it's at better
views better wheeling and when I say better views,
I don't mean like Just cuz it's brown. I don't
care about the desert. You see more there than
you do in the northwest It's just you see more
northwest. It's like I'm in a really pretty area,
but there's trees on my left There's trees on
my right. I don't see anything right That's what
I like though. I don't like open areas. I like
trees on my left and right. You have that here.
I want it in different areas too. It's a place
I haven't seen. I want to see the different geographics.
I want to see that with Arizona and all that
too, but my dream is to always go up to Pacific
Northwest and I want to be able to get out there
before the kids start school. Because once he
starts kindergarten or something or traveling,
it's going to be very limited. Will you just
go in the summer? I want to go all year. That's
the thing. I don't want to have to limit my travel
to one part of the year. I want to go all year.
I want to be able to experience that stuff. If
it means taking them out of school for a week
or something like that, I will 100 % justify
that. I just have to make sure it's not to the
point to where he has to make it up, you know.
Yeah. Well, isn't that also thought about homeschooling
him? Isn't it illegal to just pull him out of
school for a week now? They like make a big fit
about that. If he's sick with Covid, what can
they do? Remember, like a couple of years ago,
dude, you had a slightest cough and you were
out for a week. So in school. Like, I remember,
because we were here on the second half of COVID,
like Sienna's cousins, if they even had a cold,
a sniffle, a runny nose, they were out for like
a whole seven days to make sure that it wasn't
COVID. So they'd like come over to the house
all the time because they're like, well, we have
nowhere to go. Well, and no one had a cold during
COVID. Everyone had COVID. Everybody had COVID
and every one of the tests was put. turning up
positive. It was every single one and it there's
no way that was true, dude. No way. No. COVID
was a scam. We all know it. COVID was a scam.
It's being proven now. The flu was deadlier.
More people died of the flu during COVID than
people that died of COVID. But everyone that
died of the flu died of COVID. Yeah. Yeah. We
aren't going to get down that that loophole.
That was a crazy. Especially not at an hour.
like. Yeah. Yeah. We're at 55 minutes now. So,
I think it's almost time to wrap it up. Do we
have any closing news? Uh I plan on getting a
refract this Saturday. Oh, good. Mark, what's
wrong with your truck? Oh, exhaust. I mean, it's
been wrong for a while but now it's really bad
right now. It's running. It's just like falling
off. My brother thinks I might have uh um Not
gasket, but whatever the joining parts for the
exhaust, he thinks all those are bad. Oh, we
got to get on that. We got to fix that before
we go to Missouri. Yeah, I'm on a straight pipe
that baby. I figure out what exhausts I'm running,
so I just got to get it ordered and hopefully
be here. Supposedly it could be here by Saturday.
I highly doubt that. So probably be something
we do next weekend. It's all bolt on. Yeah, I'm
assuming. Yeah. That'd be cool. You're gonna
start sounded like a mean Mean I bet you it sounds
about the same well not like it does now, but
about the same it did from the factory yeah,
but That's fine cuz it's pretty bad right now.
Yeah, yeah Yeah, well on that note. I guess we
will see how all that pans out I know I'm getting
my bison stuff tomorrow, so on our next rap.
I'll have some info about that Didn't even do
a rep. Also got my cold weather tent for Light
Fighter. Yeah, you better bring that. You better
bring that this weekend because I want to check
it out. Yep. Oh, well. Gonna camp in my yard
this weekend. Yeah, at least Friday night. Yeah.
Fun. Is Alan busy Sunday, too? Yeah, I think
he's going to Ann Arbor with me. OK. You said
Friday night you guys are camping in the yard?
Yeah. Hmm. I'll see what we have going on. I
have a propane fire pit I want to try out. I
have my area light that I want to try out. I'd
love to just camp for one day. I need to. That
fixed Alex. I can't get my area light to charge
and it's making me very upset. I think you'd
rate it dead dead and it's just like nope. Oh.
Oh, I just I just plugged it into my keyboard
charger and it worked. Maybe it's just really
picky about the charger. I can see that. Could
be. I should pick up. Alright, well, I will uh
yeah, the area lights are cool, man. You guys
gotta see this one at like at night time. This
thing's sued. This little husky from uh Home
Depot for like $23, right? Yeah. It's not as
good as a light ranger. Obviously, it's twenty
three dollars. This thing's fucking banging,
dude. It's got a tripod mount and magnets so
you can stick it on a tripod. So like I had it
on my my tripod I use for my. Whatever that thing
for my phone is. Oh, the gimbal. Yeah, thank
you. I use it on the tripod for that, dude. So
it's sitting at like six foot high. Beautiful.
Oh, my God. Yeah, we've been we've used the the
DeVos or Devos or whatever you call it. I think
of DeVos like the DeVos center. It's spelled
the same, but it's a very different pronunciation.
We use the DeVos for all of our like inside the
house painting and stuff. And then we lost power
for a night. And I use that as an aerial light
and it lit the whole kitchen up better than my
kitchen light did. So I think sick. And it lasts
a good, like, on full, it lasts a good four to
six hours, I want to say. Yeah, that's impressive.
So yeah, so I'm excited to try that out. Yeah,
maybe I'll have to pop either pop in Friday or
come in and camp Friday. We'll see what we got
going on. The canopy, the canopy wanted to the
canopy will probably be set up, but you won't
want to be in it because we're going to wash
it. Fuck if it's supposed to snow on Sunday,
we can't do that this weekend. No gonna freeze
Nope, I wonder if it I wonder if it fits in my
shop. I Think it'll be close, but I think we're
working the shop because we can put it in my
wash bay and then pop it up and Use the water
right there in the wash bay and wash it. Yeah
Perfect. All right, so I think that's it Yeah.
But we have to wait 20 seconds to make it exactly
one hour. Oh. Well, check out all of our socials.
I don't think the record will be an hour, though,
because we technically started before. We technically
started after the actual two hours. Yeah, we
have all our countdown. Unless we want to include
our 10 -second countdown, which I almost did
on our last episode. I got in, and I was like,
oh. We're counting down. I have to delete that
real quick. And we're Audi. Bye. Yes. Later.
Bye.